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Tebo sees off Phend for second win

While the first two encounters in the third round of the Reedy Race of Champions saw easy first wins for Ryan Maifield and Kody Numedahl, it was the closing race that would provide the main entertainment with Jared Tebo just seeing off a last lap challenge from Dakotah Phend to notch up his second win of the Day.  The result means that Tebo now shares the early points lead with Steven Hartson who after wins in the first two rounds finished 3rd from 6th on the grid.  Running in the same race as Tebo, it was another fraught round for defending champion Ryan Cavalieri as he got caught up in pile ups twice during the race eventually finishing 5th.

Starting fourth on the grid, Tebo described the early part of the race as challenging.  Starting on pole Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would lead the pack from the number 2 starting Durango of Travis Amezcua with Tebo complimenting the 13-year-old’s driving saying he was ‘driving good up front’.  However the 2WD World Champion said with the Polish drivers pace a bit slower this caused him to get out of his rhythm.  At the start of lap three this led to Tebo causing a pile up.  Running third and catching the leaders he said got caught out by how early they braked for the first corner and coming in at his normal pace he had no choice but to throw his RB6 sideways so as not to take out the leaders but this led to him getting collected by the following cars, dropping him back to fifth.

Working his way back to 3rd a mistake on lap 11 at the Esses by leader Orlowski would turn the race on its head as the Schumacher set off a chain reaction of crashes that would see legend of the sport Brian Kinwald go to the front to a huge roar from onlookers. Leading for two laps the multiple World Champion would make a mistake allowing first Tebo through and then Phend.  Having started from 9th on the grid, Phend would set the fastest lap of the race as he closed in on Tebo attempting a number of moves looking like he might just have got it done, out jumping Tebo onto the straight but Tebo was already on power and saw off the challenge to the line by 0.311 of a second.  Commenting on the closing stages of the race, Tebo said when he got into the lead he wanted to keep it safe but with Phend having a similar pace this forced him to push.  While calling Phend’s attempted pass a ‘clean move’ he added ‘I’m happy he didn’t pass me’.  Behind, Amezcua would come away with 3rd followed by Kinwald, Cavalieri and Orlowski.

In the opening race, Maifield easily converted his first pole starting position into victory winning by 8-seconds from his protege Rivkin who started from fourth.   The third second place finish of the day for Rivkin the result puts the 16-year-old equal third in the points standings with Maifield.  The big battle of the race was for third with Hartson, who having started 6th dropped to 9th on lap 2, getting the better of the fights with both new Serpent signing Hupo Honigl and former Champion Joern Neumann to complete the Top 3.

Race 2 saw Kody Numedahl take up the early lead that he would see through to the end.  While the Team Associated engineer cruised to the win, behind there was a good battle for 2nd between Ty Tessmann, Dustin Evans and Carson Wernimont.  Unfortunately Tessmann would get it wrong at the triple on lap 11 sending the HB’s driver back to fourth as both Evans and Wernimont went through.  For new Associated signing Wernimont, the race would net his third third place finish in as many races.

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Hartson doubles up in Round 2

Steven Hartson made it two out of two at the Reedy Race of Champions however the second win for the Associated driver came after a much more fraught & chaotic second encounter.  Also running in the same race defending champion Ryan Cavalieri would fall fowl of the chaos ending the race 7th having at one stage looked like a contender for a second win of the day.  In the other two races Jared Tebo, who got a third in Round 1, and Dustin Evans, who having started his opening race on pole ended up only 5th, would register their first wins.

‘Crashed a couple of times but it ended out a good result’ was how Hartson summed up what was by far the most action packed encounter of the 21st running of the Reedy Race.  Again starting from the front row, Cody King on pole, Hartson went to the front when King’s Kyosho made contact with the piping on lap two but mistakes on the next two laps would see him drop to 5th. The second mistake at the Associated Esses would drastically change the race spinning out and facing the pack Hartson’s B5M would send Cavalieri’s example into a roll with Ty Tessmann also making contact with Hartson’s car with the HB ending up on its roof.  Hartson said having dropped to the middle of the pack after the incident ‘it was pretty easy to give up but I kept it going and in the end got the win’.  The win would come late however after a last lap error from King would allow Hartson, who had to wait on the Kyosho driver 4 laps earlier after they tangled, to go to front.  For King the same corner at which he tangled with Hartson would again strike as Chad Due also tangled with him allowing Tessmann through to take second with King crossing the line 3rd.

Evans’ win would come courtesy of mistakes from the two drivers who converted back row starts in Round 1 into significant 2nd place finishes.  Starting from pole position Spencer Rivkin would lead the field for four laps. Intially leading from Evans, the former champion would open up for TLR team-mate Maifield who would go to the front after a mistake from the 16-year-old that dropped him to third.  6 laps later it was the turn of Maifield to make a mistake as he entered the section leading on to the main straight dropping him to third behind his young protege, the order remaining unchanged for the remaining 4 laps with Evans winning by a 2.1 second margin.  Evans said with Maifield pushing hard at the start he let him passed as he let him go at Rivkin.  Less nervous than in Round 1, he said just drove his own race and ended up benefiting from the leaders mistakes describing the race as ‘a good confidence maker’.

In the opening race of the round, starting from pole position, Tebo led away the field and looked in control building up over 2-seconds of a lead over Neumann up until half way into the race.  Clipping the piping in the Associated Esses, the 2WD World Champion would put his RB6 on its roof allowing Neumann to the front.  However Tebo wasn’t letting the 2012 Champion have the win that easy and fought back hard.  4-laps later, at the triple Tebo would land in the rear wing of Neumann’s Yokomo putting the German out of shape leading him to hit the piping and roll.  While Tebo initially waited on Neumann, with Carson Wernimont coming he resumed racing to take the win from Neumann by 2.8 seconds with Wernimont third. Afterwards Neumann said while the win would have been nicer he couldn’t be unhappy with a 1st and a 2nd from the opening two rounds.

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Champion Cavalieri opens Reedy Race with win

Defending back to back champion Ryan Cavalieri got his quest for a fourth Reedy Race of Champions title off to the perfect start as he opened the 21st running of the event this morning at OCRC Raceway with a win in the first round of heads up racing.  The first of 12 rounds of racing also saw wins for former Champion Joern Neumann and 4WD World Champion Steven Hartson. One significant result for Round 1 was that of Ryan Maifield, the TLR driver & 2014 runner-up, having been drawn to start 9th, managed to work his way through the field to finish 2nd behind Neumann.

Starting his race from 4th, the first of the event, behind a number of key contenders, namely former Champion Dustin Evans and Jared Tebo, Cavalieri said the start was a little confusing and for much of the first lap he expected a restart to be called.  Just as the computer announced 1-minute to the start the start tone went with a number of drivers including Cavalieri not making the best of starts.  Once he ‘settled in’ Cavalieri said he was fortunate enough to benefit from a few people hitting the piping adding this meant he never had to ‘force the issue, which was nice’.  Cavalieri utlimately went to the front when Evans made a mistake on lap 6 of 14 taking the win from Durango’s Travis Amezcua, Tebo & Tessmann with Evans falling to 5th.  Other than one scary moment when Cody King got it wrong at the triple sending his Kyosho across the path of his B5M he summed up the race as ‘a conservative run but got what I wanted’.

Winning the second race of the round Neumann said switching from an 8.5 to a 7.5 Orion motor in his Yokomo had made the YZ-2 much better than in practice.  The German, who became the first European driver to win the Reedy Race in 2012, said he knew Maifield would push but he just drove a ‘smooth and controlled race’.  Having opened up an early gap he said even though Maifield did close him down, the final gap being 1.2 seconds, he never really had any cause for concern from the American.

‘Not bad to get up to the Top 3 starting from the back’ was how Maifield summed up his opening race.  Having built up a gap over 3rd placed Carson Wernimont he said for the last couple of laps he decided to go for it but after a mistake at the triple on his penultimate lap he said he settled for the second.  Describing his TLR22 as predictable he said it could do with a little more steering but ultimate performance is not what this race is about.

Hartson took the most convincing win of the first round, leading home an impressive drive from Spencer Rivkin by 7.9 seconds.  With OCRC his home track, the Associated driver said the win was ‘a lot easier starting from the front row’ but it was important to capitalise on his draws to start up front.

Starting from 10th on the grid, Rivkin said he ran ‘really patient at the start’ and as those ahead of him crashed he just picked his way through and ‘kept it going’.  The winner of the Open class in 4WD last year, which booked him his place in this year’s 30 driver Invitational class, Team Associated’s 16-year-old future prospect said it was a really positive start to the event considering his starting position and he hopes to carry that through the remainder of the day.

Having started his race from the pole position, 2011 Champion Evans said nerves got the better of him adding his mistake at the chicane was at one of the easiest parts of the track.  Happy with the pace of his TLR22 he said he just didn’t drive it well.

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